My loaves look nothing like this lady’s. Hers are beautiful, golden with browned highlights. And the interiors look much better developed, not as gooey. I couldn't tell, but the bottom might have been slightly over browned. That result I can consistently acheive. And her finished dough looks less slack than mine usually does. Mine is usually a floppy mess that doesn't want to hold that nice, round shape.

I made this again a few days ago, but I decided to make it into a long loaf shape (think French bread) on a cookie sheet. Same procedure I have been doing otherwise - with the casserole dish filled with water on the bottom of the oven instead of baking in a covered container. I think it turns out better than my round loaves - rises a little better, and the inside is a lot more uniform. Still tastes delicious!

Honestly, I don't measure the ingredients very well for this. I use a *gasp* measuring cup and teaspoons, without spooning and leveling (although I rarely do that for anything I bake anyway). I really thought that this particular recipe was forgiving; I have such an easy time with it. Its possible for me to vary the water, yeast, flour, and rest time and still have excellent results. The next step for me will be adding spices!

I just tried that based on comments elsewhere. I did increase the flour to 470 g vs 430 (ca. +10%) to help stiffen the dough.

*gasp*ing on measures: a lot of things work. I have found weighing a great advantage for consistency and repeatability.
I jest hate it when it flops next time and you can't remember exactly how you did it last time....

I am definitely going to try this this weekend. I thought I was reading about myself in the beginning of the article as I have tried EVERY one of the techniques he talks about, and none of them have worked very well.....this sounds like it should work a charm.....thanks for the link!

So.....as I promised, I tried this recipe this weekend....it worked wonderfully....it was a bit messy to deal with as I have never worked with such watery dough, but other than that, the end result was very good. I liked the taste of my bread a little better, but the crust was awesome. I may try and adapt my french bread recipe to this, maybe make it slightly more watery (but not as watery as this was) and see how that goes......definitely worth doing though.

Nice looking bread...very airy. I went out and bought a 10qt Dutch oven that I have been using...I tried the no knead once, but have since been using my old recipe but keeping it just a bit more watery than I used to...not as watery as the no knead though...maybe I will post a pic after this weekends loaf is made....I may try the absorbic acid as well.....I will let you know how it turns out.

by all means - I'm curious as to how "universal" the a-acid trick may be.

many people report non-success with the no knead recipe - it is definitely a lot looser than any dough I previously worked with.

I still make a variety of bread types, but the no knead is one of my favs for crust, taste and it's easy to make!

I forgot to take a picture, but I did try your trick and my bread turned out AWESOME....it could be the addition of the absorbic, but it could be that I barely kneaded it before the second rise...either way, this was the softest loaf I have ever made.....will try and remember to take a picture this weekend.

don't think so - I've tried about every combination & permutation I could think of and it was the a-acid that finally put the WOW factor in.

I wouldn't say I "knead" the bread at the second rising - at all. I let it go 18 hrs, pour it out, dusting the bench & dough top surface pre-pour, dust my hands liberally to keep it from sticking while I scoop it into a mass & _rapidly_ get the inverted bowl on it for a 2 hr rise.

as it's doing a nice imitation of The Blob from Outer Space, all I'm doing is getting it into a heap that I can cover with the bowl - no attempt at 'working' the dough.

about two weeks agao I decided I'd do a loaf without the ascorbic acid - just to be sure I wasn't fooling myself.

no fooling, definitely an effect, definitely positive, imho.

I've had a request to do it in "raisin bread" - I'm debating whether to soak the raisins or just put them in "dry" . . .

don't think so - I've tried about every combination & permutation I could think of and it was the a-acid that finally put the WOW factor in.

I wouldn't say I "knead" the bread at the second rising - at all. I let it go 18 hrs, pour it out, dusting the bench & dough top surface pre-pour, dust my hands liberally to keep it from sticking while I scoop it into a mass & _rapidly_ get the inverted bowl on it for a 2 hr rise.

as it's doing a nice imitation of The Blob from Outer Space, all I'm doing is getting it into a heap that I can cover with the bowl - no attempt at 'working' the dough.

about two weeks agao I decided I'd do a loaf without the ascorbic acid - just to be sure I wasn't fooling myself.

no fooling, definitely an effect, definitely positive, imho.

I've had a request to do it in "raisin bread" - I'm debating whether to soak the raisins or just put them in "dry" . . .

Well whatever it was, the bread was just amazing this time. I have always liked my bread, but this load was different. I will certainly have to take a picture of it this weekend and post it.

As for raisin bread, I couldn't tell you. I haven't made raisin bread before, not a big fan of it, so I wish I could give you some advice there, but I don't have any!....

I tried the no knead recipe found elsewhere on this forum for the first time. For me, I used the following recipe, that seems to be accurate. The initial mix took 5 minutes and I let it sit overnight for 18 hours, covered with plastic wrap and towels. Scraped it out of the bowl and pulled and stretched it 3-4 times, formed a boule, sprinkled it with corn meal and placed it in another bowl to rise for two hours. Preheated the oven and pots to 450 degrees, dumped the bread (actually it was rather easy to pick up and place it) in the pot. Easy and good!

3 cups flour (I used bread flour in one and general purpose in the other)

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 teaspoon active yeast

1 tablespoon salt (original recipe had 1 teaspoon, but there were a number of comments that it should be more)

This is a shot right out of the oven still in their pots. 450 degrees, 30 minutes with lid on and 20 minutes with the lid off. The red round pot is the bread flour and the green oblong pot is the all purpose flour.

Right is bread flour and left is general purpose flour.

Crumb of the bread flour.

I have to apologize that I did not get the crumb of the general purpose flour -- thought I had but alas, not so.

This is by far the best bread I have ever made. I love the crust and the moist texture. I did try more salt that the original recipe based on comments here, but I'd recommend 2 teaspoons as opposed to 1 tablespoon -- tasted a bit salty to me. I will continue to make these loaves perhaps trying a rye bread version. I can't tell any difference between the bread flour and the general purpose flour in taste or structure. It also makes great toast a couple of days later.